FanHouse Brandan Wright

The NBA career of forward Brandan Wright has not gone according to plan. The UNC product, acquired by Golden Sate as a lottery pick during the 2007 draft in exchange for Jason Richardson, has played rarely for the Warriors, stuck outside Don Nelson's infamous tunnel vision.

His 2009-10 season has another more immediate challenge now: Yahoo!'s Marc Spears reports that a shoulder injury suffered during Friday's practice could put Wright under the knife, and off the court for up to six months.

I have to hand it to you, NBA offseason. You've managed to outdo yourself this year. No long lulls of nothing. No prolonged sense of abandonment for us. Between Ricky Rubio, Michael Beasley, and now Stephen Jackson, you've kept us quite entertained. Bravo.

It's Friday in the NBA offseason lull, which means wacky things can happen. Like the captain of the Golden State Warriors saying he wants out of the team, pronto. Captain Jack is abandoning ship.

The Warriors surprisingly took Stephen Curry at No. 7, leaving supposed heartthrob Jordan Hill on the board. (Hill went one pick later to New York.) Curry had refused to work out for Golden State during the workout season, and the hubbub followed that the Warriors would avoid a point guard to avoid angering Monta Ellis, who fancies himself a modern day Cousy.

But there's a twist: all evening, a rumor that Phoenix is working on sending Amar'e Stoudemire to Oakland for a package of the No. 7 (Curry), Andris Biedrins, Brandan Wright and Marco Bellineli, has circulated. Marcus Thompson of the Contra Costa Times reports that Golden State may already be working on a tentative extension agreement with Stoudemire, who will be a free agent in 2010. Stay tuned.

FanHouse fixes a decade of draft-day blunders in Revisiting the NBA Draft.

Hard to believe that several NBA general managers can have regrets after two years, but it's true. The results of the 2007 NBA Draft are slowly reaping, which should teach a lesson to their 2009 brethren on Thursday about taking chances on raw college players, international prospects and even those who are allegedly "proven."

The biggest debate two years ago was whether the Portland Trail Blazers should take Greg Oden or Kevin Durant first overall. Oden was a franchise center out of Ohio State while Durant was the smooth scoring swingman from Texas. Durant had the better workout with the Blazers, apparently blowing the mind of coach Nate McMillan. Yet, the Blazers stuck with conventional thinking and took the big man.

With Tom Ziller's blessing, I bring you the story of a fan base that had its draft night hopes raised to the highest of heights, only to have them come crashing to the ground moments later. The Sacramento Kings had the 12th pick in the draft, and as things were shaking out, it appeared one of the best guards in the draft -- Jerryd Bayless -- might just fall into their laps at that spot. Through the first 10 picks, Bayless had been passed over. All that was left was for the Pacers to draft someone else at 11, which appeared likely considering they had just traded for T.J. Ford. But then ... well, Blazer's Edge (via TrueHoop) explains better than I ever could.

There's a show on National Geographic called "Seconds from Disaster" where they chronicle, minute by minute, the events that led up to a famous, tragic event like an airline crash or a gas pipe explosion. This feels like one of those shows ...

Obligatory warning: This thread is SOOOOO not safe for work because of the language. Well, maybe if you work in a porno shop with drunken sailors who have gone off of their Tourette's meds. No...even they would blush. But in this context all of that seems vaguely appropriate.

An absolutely hilarious account, and a pretty accurate one too. Now, Kings fans weren't lining up to jump off of the Tower Bridge because the team selected Jason Thompson. It was because of the cruel way in which the Draft Gods had toyed with them, and did so for the second straight year. Ziller mentioned that this year's Draft felt a little too much like last year's, when the Kings hoped to get Brandan Wright or Joakim Noah before they disappeared from the draft board in the two picks before it was Sacramento's turn.

Hopefully Thompson turns out to be more than a serviceable big man for the Kings. Because after the way the last two draft nights have gone down in Sacramento, the fans of the team seem to deserve it.

Crystal Ballin' takes a team-by-team look at what should, could, and probably will happen in the June 26th NBA Draft.

If NBA greatness translated to the front office, ho-boy, would the Bobcats be unstoppable. Unfortunately, it doesn't. And as such, Michael Jordan's Tarheel-homerism-fueled draft rampage will only be stopped this year by everyone flocking back to Chapel Hill. Oh wait. Larry Brown's still coming.

Picks: #9, #38

Needs: A big man who can score and/or complement Emeka Okafor in the post (read: let him play power forward). Or perhaps an aggressive, defensive minded bigger guard-forward that can keep Adam Morrison off the floor when Gerald Wallace gets hurt.

Best Case Scenario: Brook Lopez drops to number nine, although considering how guard/non-big man heavy the top part of the draft is, this seems pretty unlikely. There's chatter that people aren't enamored with Brook's lack of upside though, and nothing scares an NBA front office away from someone like "lack of upside" (see: Battier, Shane). And speaking of homerism -- I'm going out on a limb and saying the Cats should trade down in the second round and pick up local UNCG product (respect the alma mater, please) and 3/4 tweener Kyle Hines, or just roll with a Joey Dorsey/D.J. White frontcourt addition.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are having quite the off-season. Sure, Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough is coming back ... but no one knows what he's coming back too. Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green have all declared for the NBA Draft (they all have the option of coming back to school by the June 16th deadline).

Now comes word that forward Alex Stepheson is leaving school and will transfer somewhere closer to home.

"My family is dealing with some health challenges at this time and as a result I have made the decision to transfer to be closer to home," Stepheson said in a statement released by the school.

"I am extremely, extremely disappointed but I feel so great about Alex that I understand his decision to transfer," UNC Roy Williams said in the release. "... He is a wonderful kid. I thoroughly enjoyed coaching him and know that he would have contributed so much more in the next two years. Nevertheless, I have tremendous respect for Alex and know that he will always be part of our Carolina Basketball family. I'll miss him, but he will always be important to me."

Home, for Stepheson, is the Los Angeles area. Stepheson was UNC's top reserve big man last season and brought much needed toughness on the floor. He turned into one of the team's premiere shotblockers and rebounders.

The fact that Stepheson is transferring is par for the course of UNC's elite 2006 recruiting class. Brandan Wright turned pro after his freshman season; Lawson and Ellington have declared for the draft; and now Stepheson is transferring. The only players left from that class are Deon Thompson and Will Graves.

There will be a press conference tomorrow which NCAA and NBA will announce a change to the NBA's draft eligibility policy. NBA commish David Stern and NCAA president Myles Brand will conduct the news conference.

Brand hinted Thursday the NCAA and NBA had worked out a deal to create a 20-year-old age limit, which would keep the best players in college for a minimum of two years.

The NBA adopted a 19-year-old age limit in its collective bargaining agreement with the players' association in 2006, which prevented high school players from jumping directly to the NBA.

This would essentially eliminate those "one-and-done" guys like Greg Oden, Kevin Durant and Brandan Wright from last year.

I love the rule because I think it is in the best interest of both the NBA and NCAA. The NBA will get a more experienced and skilled player (for every Kevin Durant, there are dozens of Brandan Wright's not playing) and the NCAA gets to keep its stars a bit longer. Imagine if Texas still had Durant or Ohio State had Oden? Would UNC been exposed by Kansas like that if Wright had still been around?

B-Ball, B-Fast is a weekdaily look at last night's NBA action from a fantasy perspective. Bookmark it and visit often.

Cup of Coffee
Stephen A. Smith rolled over in his vocal-chord enhancing cyborg chamber last night as Rasho Nesterovic posted a very nice line -- 16 points, five boards and three blocks -- with Chris Bosh beginning to sit out a week with a knee issue. Nesterovic isn't going to set the world on fire, but he can be a nice option in deeper leagues for boards and blocks over the next week, and as long as Bosh stays injured, he's a cheap filler. Plus, he kind of looks like Dwight Schrute, so that's a bonus.

Hot Cakes
It's safe to say Devin Harris is going to take that starter's job in New Jersey. He scored another 21 off the bench last night with five boards and two dimes in 35 minutes; Marcus Williams had eight points with three boards and two dimes, plus four turnovers in only 18 minutes. Get prepared to see Williams' minutes continue to dive.

Luis Scola went off for 18 points and 14 boards against the Nuggets. With Yao Ming done for the season, you could really see that Scola felt a need to carry the offensive load. Unlikely he's available in your league, but if he is, get ready for a boost in value for the remainder of the season.

I'll admit it: When the Warriors traded Jason Richardson for (AOL Sports blogger) Brandan Wright, I was scared. Scare that, with two competent big men, that team might become something different. Andris Biedrins was effective in the paint, but swapping one of the team's key shooters for another tall dude? No wonder Don Nelson is getting restless.

Then I got a look at Tim Kawakami's latest column in The Mercury News:

The Warriors want him running and jumping, and Wright is assuredly capable of that.

"We haven't really seen him play, but as far as doing the drills up and down the floor, he's the fastest guy that we have, besides our guards," Silas said.

Wright is a few inches shorter with less of a proven offensive repertoire than Kevin Garnett and Chris Bosh, but Wright (left-handed like Bosh) says he didn't shoot the mid-range jumper at Carolina because there were so many other offensive options.

"You'll definitely see me take that shot this year," Wright said.

It's still premature to compare Wright to any All-Stars. But if he can step into that line-up without slowing up the flow, this team might turn into something more than a cult favorite.